Copper

Sometimes it's the simplest things that are the most confounding. Last year, right before Easter, I blogged about how to make a perfect hard-boiled egg. Basic? Yes. Popular? Very. This seemingly simple task received tens of thousands of page views. And, it seemed, almost as many complaints: "But how do you peel them?" Mea culpa. while my method ensures that hard-boiled eggs are never overdone (at last: the cure for the dreaded copper-green ring!), it also can make them harder to shell, because perfectly cooked eggs turn out to be stickier than ones that have been overcooked.

TAGHAR, Afghanistan - In a rugged valley outside Kabul, where mud-walled villages blend into bare scrubland, a team of international mining experts and Afghan trainees set up camp over the winter to probe the region's mineral resources. Protected by armed guards, they spent three months drilling test holes into the snowcapped peaks, as curious goat- and sheepherders looked on. "We hit copper damn near everywhere," said Robert Miller, a Colorado-based mining executive recruited by the Pentagon to help advise Afghan authorities on how to develop the country's natural resources.

Rose gold, first popularized almost a century ago, has made a comeback. The blush-hued version of the precious metal is showing up in status watches, engagement rings, necklaces and more. The feminine pieces look delicate on their own but can also bridge the gap between white and yellow gold when all three are worn together. Rose gold, which is sometimes called "pink gold," may seem more exotic than run-of-the-mill yellow, but the secret to its color is comparatively pedestrian: copper.

LETPADAUNG TAUNG, Myanmar - For generations, Ko Myint Tin and his ancestors grew wheat, corn and onions on this fertile land in northern Myanmar. These days, he's propagating banners and slogans to protest the seizure of his family's farmland by powerful Burmese and Chinese military interests hungry for the copper beneath the furrows. Ko Myint Tin, 34, said he was pushed into accepting $650 per acre in "crop damage" in 2010 that, once the documents were signed, resulted in his losing control of his 24 acres.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Aug. 19 - 25 in PDF format This week's TV Movies   SUNDAY You got nuthin' on me, "Copper. " Tom Weston-Jones, above, is the long arm of the law in this new police procedural set way back in 1860s New York City. "The Bourne Identity's" Franka Potente also stars. (BBC America, 7, 8, 9 and 10 p.m.) Gentlemen, start your ovens: Kicking off in Long Beach, and set to end 3,000-plus miles away in Maine, "The Great Food Truck Race" is on once again.

Copper helps the body use iron and sugar and promotes bone growth. The essential mineral -- found in nuts, legumes, organ meats, shellfish, beans and whole grains -- is easy to obtain with a healthful diet. Because the body needs only small amounts, copper deficiency is rare, but when it does occur it can lower immunity and lead to anemia, osteoporosis, arthritis and heart disease. * Uses: Copper supplements are taken to improve bone and tissue health and for their potential antioxidant powers.

Kennecott Corp. is launching a $227-million expansion of its Utah copper mining operations this year, which will boost production of the metal nearly 15% by late 1992, the company said. Kennecott Utah Copper will make improvements, including a fourth ore grinding line and flotation circuit, to increase its annual output to 270,000 tons from the present 235,000 tons, said G. Frank Joklik, Kennecott's president and chief executive.

Federal regulators charged Merrill Lynch & Co. on Thursday with allegedly helping a commodities firm manipulate the world copper market. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Merrill Lynch worked with New York-based Global Minerals & Metals Corp. and Japan's Sumitomo Corp. to artificially force prices higher in late 1995.

The roots of Sumitomo Corp., now embroiled in scandal over huge losses by a rogue copper trader, go back to the 17th century, when it was, ironically, a copper producer and refiner. The House of Sumitomo was founded by Masatomo Sumitomo, a warrior-turned-monk who gave up the monastic life to begin a medicine and bookstore business. Once established, he learned a European-perfected copper-refining technique.

High scrap-metal prices led criminals to steal copper wire from about 750 streetlights, costing the city nearly $250,000, officials said. Copper sells for about $3 to $4 a pound, said Dave Row, a supervisor with the Public Works Department. The amount of copper stolen between two streetlights can weigh between 60 and 80 pounds. Workers will retool electrical boxes on the lights with special locks and screws. Officers are following up on leads provided by scrap-metal business owners, Police Capt.

The CopperWynd Resort & Club , in the McDowell Mountains east of Scottsdale, Ariz., is celebrating the holiday season with an $119-a-night deal, a discount of 32% off its regular room rate. The deal: The intimate CopperWynd has 32 rooms and dramatic views of the Sonoran Desert and Four Peaks. It offers a quieter alternative to the holiday hubbub at other resorts, but for those who do need some activity, there are two swimming pools, nine tennis courts and a fitness center, as well as access to area golf courses SunRidge Canyon Golf Club , the Golf Club at Eagle Mountain and We-Ko-Pa Golf Club . Its full-service spa features body treatments incorporating area gemstones such as amethysts and turquoise.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Aug. 19 - 25 in PDF format This week's TV Movies   SUNDAY You got nuthin' on me, "Copper. " Tom Weston-Jones, above, is the long arm of the law in this new police procedural set way back in 1860s New York City. "The Bourne Identity's" Franka Potente also stars. (BBC America, 7, 8, 9 and 10 p.m.) Gentlemen, start your ovens: Kicking off in Long Beach, and set to end 3,000-plus miles away in Maine, "The Great Food Truck Race" is on once again.

"Copper," which premieres Sunday night, is the first original drama from BBC America, a network that sometimes seems to be made entirely of "Top Gear" reruns. It is rather good. Co-created by Tom Fontana and executive produced by Barry Levinson, who earlier laid "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "Oz" at our feet, with co-creator Will Rokos (who co-wrote "Monster's Ball"), it is a sort of Eastern western, set around the unruly, pestilent Five Points area of New York City in 1864 - the place and the time, or just after it, of Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York.

"What's this?" I ask the proprietor of Hitachiya, a Japanese cookware store in Torrance. I couldn't imagine how such a crude metal spike could possibly be used in the kitchen. "For nailing an eel to a board. " I shudder, remembering the one time I dealt with a still-wriggling eel. "And this?" I wonder, examining a hinged wire mesh basket with handle. "For roasting ginkgo nuts. " I'd made a trip to Hitachiya to buy a Japanese-made hand-hammered steel wok recommended by my friend Sonoko Sakai.

It seemed like a good idea at the time: Convert an area in Lower Manhattan into a comfortable, racially integrated middle-class neighborhood as the city's population swelled, largely through European immigration. Things didn't turn out so well, though: Before long, Five Points had become a crowded, diseased, heavily Irish slum, and even Charles Dickens, no stranger to urban squalor, was shocked by this "square of leprous houses ... reeking everywhere with dirt and filth," during a visit.

Naomi Wormell is a vicar, not a vigilante. But these days, she finds it hard to choose Christian charity over some swift -- and terrible -- retribution. The centuries-old church she leads in this quiet English village has fallen victim to a plague sweeping across Britain. Like hungry locusts, metal thieves have repeatedly attacked St. Mary's Church, swooping down on its roof in the dead of night and stripping away large sections of its Victorian-era lead cladding. Six times over a four-month period, the heartsick residents of Hatfield Broad Oak awoke to discover yet another piece of their history stolen, most likely to be melted down and sold for scrap.

In an unprecedented move, local water quality officials ruled Monday that the San Diego Unified Port District is just as responsible for a celebrated case of copper pollution in San Diego Bay as the company that handled the metal concentrate. Members of the state Regional Water Quality Control Board voted unanimously to name the port district a primary contributor to the bay pollution, along with Paco Terminals Inc.

Cyprus Amax Minerals Co. and Asarco Inc. said they agreed to merge in a $2.2-billion deal that would create the world's largest publicly traded copper producer and the world's second-largest copper company, behind Chile's government-owned Codelco. The combined company, to be known as Asarco Cyprus Inc., would have about $8 billion in assets and 15,000 employees, and produce about 2 billion pounds of copper a year.

When Huguette Clark's will was filed six months ago, art lovers in Santa Barbara were delighted: The bluff-top estate owned by the reclusive 104-year-old copper heiress was to be transformed into a museum. It was an exciting but uncertain prospect at the time, largely because the museum was to be established by Clark's attorney and accountant — longtime advisors whose ethics had been questioned in news reports and in legal actions by Clark's relatives. The possibility grew even dimmer Friday when a New York City judge suspended the pair as Clark's executors, citing accusations of massive tax fraud.

Raise cash, head for the sidelines. That was the guiding sentiment in stock and commodity markets Thursday as some investors and traders sold what they could and looked for a hiding place amid fresh doubts about the global economy. Commodities took the heaviest hit: Gold futures dived $54, or 3%, to $1,719.80 an ounce in New York, the biggest one-day drop since Sept. 23. The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB index of 19 commodities slumped 2.5%, the biggest decline since Sept.